A recent national study (E. Dahlstrom, T. de Boor, P. Grunwald and M. Vockley, “ECAR: National study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology”, EDUCAUSE, Center for Applied Research, 2011) shows that 90% of all undergraduate students use social networking sites as a communication tool, with 58% of students self-reporting that they learn better in blended learning environments: classrooms with some online components. Moreover, the current generation of undergraduate students live in a networked world and communicate differently than previous generations. See M. Ito, H Horst, M. Bittanti, etc. “Living and learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project,” November 2008.
Typical material in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) textbooks presented to this generation may be too abstract for many students with little or no interactivity between mathematical and graphical representations and lack of feedback on one hand, and outdated text material on the other hand. This may result in a disconnect between the technical concepts and how they fundamentally relate to the STEM content. Such disconnect may result in misconceptions that students will harbor for a long time and that will cause them difficulties as they venture to more advanced STEM courses.